kitten coughing/wheezing, but not constantly-alergies maybe? please help.

Question
hi, my name is stacey and i just got two 8 week old kittens from a woman that rescued their mom from euthanization at a shelter. now, the mom was/is healthy, the little girl is healthy, but the little boy sometimes wheezes and coughs. not a regular hairball cough though; almost like he's going to vomit, but nothing comes out. i noticed today that he ONLY does it when the outside door is open. when its closed and the air conditioning is on he's fine - no wheezing or 'hacking', so for the past few hours i kept the doors closed, air on and he's just fine. then i opened the door for just maybe 5 minutes and he did it. shut the door, his little episode stopped and he's been fine. do you think he has a cold or something and the humidity is affecting him or can cats get allergies? he's very active, playing with his sister as always, eating and using the litter box regularly. i just don't know too much about allergies in cats and if that's what it could be or if its more serious. please help if you've experienced this before, cause i sure don't know what it could be. thanks. *stacey

Answer
Stacey,

Any number of issues could be happening, unfortunately I am not a vet and can't make medical diagnoses. It does sound more to me like an upper respiratory infection rather than an allergy. Cats typically become very itchy when they have allergies rather than the upper respiratory symptoms that people can get. The best thing to do would be to have both kittens thoroughly assessed by a vet as soon as possible so that they can be dewormed and checked for serious health issues like feline leukemia or FIV. Both of these illnesses can wreak havoc with their immune systems. Vaccinations are also important as the immunity that they have from their mother's milk is wearing off. I hope that this information helps. If you have any further questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me again.